Within the Abu Dhabi Festival's Ramadan Spiritual Music Series, Mahmoud ElTohamy and his ensemble, alongside graduates of his Islamic Sufi Chanting School have performed a selection of traditional poems of praises to Allah and Prophet Mohammed celebrating the Muslim's Holy Month of Ramadan.
"I am happy to have participated in the Abu Dhabi Festival for years," ElTohamy told Ahram Online on Tuesday. "I am honoured to represent the local culture and traditional heritage with a modern approach that preserves its identity and attracts others to such a prestigious event," he added.
The Abu Dhabi Festival, the UAE’s leading celebration of arts and culture, urged viewers to enjoy the event, which they described as "a moving concert that sheds light on the importance of the Holy Month’s values of tolerance and peace."
Introduced by the festival's artistic director Huda Alkhamis-Kanoo, the concert features an arsenal of young chanters including some award-winning graduates of the 12 batches of ElTohamy's school, which has been running since 2014 in Cairo with free admission.
This is the second concert for ElTohamy as part of the festival this Ramadan. Last weekend, the Abu Dhabi Festival also released Hands of God, a performance that combines ElTohamy with Mohammed Abdel-Ra’ouf Al-Sohagy and Mohammed Yousef.
Most famous for 'Qamaron', El-Burda, Rasamtok and many other traditional Islamic Sufi poems, the 1979-born ElTohamy started his career in childhood by following in the footsteps of his father, pioneering Sufi chanter Sheikh Yassin ElTohamy.
He has performed Sufi poetry chants at traditional Islamic Sunni events across the country for crowds that have numbered in the hundreds of thousands at large moulid events in Cairo's Al-Hussein and Al-Saida Zeinab districts.
ElTohamy, who has performed in several countries, was featured in various concerts with Egyptian Grammy Award winner Fathy Salama as part of a project launched in 2018 titled 'Sufism vs Modernism'.
Since its launch in 2004, the Abu Dhabi Festival has established partnerships with some influential cultural institutions like the Edinburgh International Festival, the Royal Opera House, Manchester International Festival and Carnegie Hall
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